Paul Delvaux, the Surrealist painter

After studying at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he learnt drawing with the symbolist painter Jean Delville and decorative painting with Constant Montald, Paul Delvaux created his post-Impressionist, then Expressionist paintings, influenced primarily by James Ensor (1860-1949).

In the early 1930s, the painter found inspiration in his visits to the Foire du Midi in Brussels and the Musée Spitzner.  However, it was his discovery of the work Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, by the painter Giorgio De Chirico, that led Delvaux to discover Surrealism (1934); he began a series of works with "Woman with Lace" and exhibited his work at the Surrealist Exhibition in Paris in 1938.

The themes Delvaux painted were mystery, fantasy imagination, the theatre of dreams, imaginary journeys, contemplation and solitude.  He also painted large murals, including the one at the Palais des Congrès in Brussels and the Institut de Zoologie in Liège.